Last week, Harvey Weinstein surrendered himself to the New York Police, and was charged with first-degree rape and third-degree rape in one case; and first-degree criminal sex act in another. The disgraced director pleaded not guilty and was released on a $1 million cash bail bond.

Judd writes in her piece for TIME magazine about her initial reaction to the news, one of pure unemotional shock, “I didn’t have a reaction”, and how we should accept the duality of such news: while it should be “normal, routine and not particularly newsworthy” that a criminal is being held legally accountable, it is also “thunderous news”.

Harvey Weinstein emerges from New York Police Department's First Precinct smiling after he was charged with rape and other sex crimes. Photo: Getty/AFPSource:Whimn

She says, “The criminal justice system should function efficiently and swiftly, apprehending and punishing any and all sexual predators, whatever their social status and power quotient. And in this moment, in this era, that a powerful man who thrived and flourished in a culture of impunity was arrested and charged is resoundingly significant.

“It is a watershed event, an irreversible pivot away from tacit and explicit license to exploit to a ground of firmer boundaries and clarity about intolerable behaviour no longer being tolerated.”

The cover of Time's Person of the Year edition as "The Silence Breakers," those who have shared their stories about sexual assault and harassment. It features Ashley Judd, Taylor Swift, Susan Fowler and others who say they have been harassed. Photo: Time Magazine via AP.Source:Whimn

However, the actress also highlights the problem with the fact that Weinstein, despite surrendering, still plead not-guilty when the evidence against him is almost undeniable.

“I was hopeful Harvey would plead guilty, that his surrender was volitional, so that in addition to carving out a singular position of disgrace, he could come forward as the predator who walks out of shame onto a new path of humility, introspection, accountability and amends, thereby leading our men and country in the necessary and inexorable of trajectory of restorative justice.

Harvey Weinstein charged with sexual assault0:47

Harvey Weinstein charged with sexual assault after handing himself in to New York Police. He has posted one million dollars in bail.

May 25th 2018

8 months ago

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She writes that until perpetrators of sexual violence are able to address their transgressions and truly transform, we have a ways to go in creating real change in a post-#metoo era: “We still wait for an accused who can and will embody what the #metoo movement and our society needs and wants.

“Restorative justice is also dual; in order for survivor-victims and society to embrace and restore the reformed, the reformed must have been genuinely transformed, shedding layers of toxic masculinity, exiting the denial/apology tour and standing in a new and collective space where both the person is and the narrative are made whole and unified.”